New Tuthill GT One debuts at Monterey Car Week
Clearly inspired by the legendary Le Mans Porsche 911 GT1, Tuthill’s latest creation takes 3,500 hours to build
British Porsche specialist Tuthill is following up its spectacular 850kg, 11,000rpm 911K and the rally raid-style ATS developed with Singer, with the GT ONE – a road car inspired by the spectacular production-based endurance racing cars of the nineties.
Tuthill doesn’t mention it explicitly, probably for very good legal reasons, but the inspiration is clearly Porsche’s 911 GT1: the car launched in 1996 to wrest Le Mans honours from the McLaren F1, which had arrived the year before and dominated the famous 24-hour event on its first visit.
Porsche achieved that goal immediately, beating McLaren to LMGT1 honours in 1996, albeit losing out on the overall race victory to a TWR Porsche prototype. But to meet GT1 regulations, Porsche built a run of road-legal ‘Straßenversion’ models, and it’s this the new Tuthill GT ONE most closely resembles in spirit – it’s been designed specifically for the road, rather than as a high-end track day or racing car.
The GT ONE uses the latest technology though. While there’s a 911 somewhere underneath, the elongated bodywork, penned by Florian Flatau, is entirely carbon fibre, with the front and rear clamshells, roof with integrated air intake, and doors all made from the lightweight material.
The effect is exaggerated even more than that of the original 911 GT1, with the kind of attention to detail we’ve come to expect from Tuthill, including a pair of wing-mounted mirrors that echo those of the original. All that’s missing is a prominent rear spoiler – though the company does say ‘an optional aero package may be developed for track use’.
Underneath, the GT ONE sports double wishbone suspension at both ends (very visibly pushrod-operated at the rear), while the turbofan-style wheels (wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres) hide carbon-ceramic disc brakes and calipers bespoke to the car.
Complementing the sleek exterior styling, the underbody has been developed for aerodynamic efficiency too, while safety has been designed to racing standards, with FIA-spec roll-over protection built into the body, along with side impact bars in the doors. Unsurprisingly, the interior is beautifully detailed too, with some of the most heavily-bolstered bucket seats we’ve ever seen. You’ll need to be as limber as an actual racing driver to clamber into those…
Naturally, it’s powered by a flat-six engine – a 4.0-litre unit available in both naturally aspirated (with more than 500bhp, inspired by that in the high-revving 911K) and turbocharged (with over 600bhp) forms. There’s a choice of transmissions too: a manual, and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Weight stands at only 1,200kg, too.
The car has been unveiled at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, during the Monterey Car Week in California, and Tutill says it will build only 22 GT ONEs – a number perhaps not unrelated to the 3,500 build-hours it takes to put together each car.
“The FIA GT1 class enabled manufacturers to create stunning race cars” says Richard Tuthill. “We have taken the best bits but focused on producing a wonderful road car.”
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